The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-12-07
.ABOUT'BLEPHANTS.
How the Monsters Were Employed in
War-First a appearance in Europe.
FROM TIE CiActnndti Enquirer.


overcome with terror, could not be induced
10 endeavor to escape, and so was destroyed
in the flames. A chronicler of that time
says: "And when the fire was extinguished
everyone endeavored TO procure some part
of the elephant, few of them having seen
him living, by the reason of the great rates
put upon the sight of him."
In an interesting volume entitled 1.-THE
Menagerie," published some years since in
London, this instance isquoted by way of
contrast with the general familiar knowl-
edge of the elephant in later times.
The ancients were well acquainted
with the elephant, which formed part of
the fighting material of every great con-
queror's army, and shared in all triumphal
professions. but when Rome no longer sent
out her armies to forage the whole world
for wonders as well as for plumber, the ele-
plant became to Southern Europe a myth
ical marvel only.
After the time of the early Byzantine
monarchs there is no mention of the huge
earth-shaking BEAST" as Pliny called it, in
European history, until the year S02, when
''the good Haroun AL Raschid, " caliph of
the Saracens, sent an elephant to Charlie
magne.
In 1856 Louis TX of France brought
from Egypt an African elephant, which he
sent to Henry III. of England This ele-
where, we judge, he had quite comfortable
quarters if the order given by the king to
the sheriff was obeyed, to-wit: 1--WE COM
mand you that of the forum of our city we
cause, without delay, to be built at our
Tower of London, one house 40 feet long
and 20 feet deep for our elephant" What
became of this well-provided beast, and how
long he lived, the historian does not tell us.
Early in the sixteenth century King
Emanuel of Portugal sent an elephant to
Pope Leo X. This animal having, no
doubt, been well tutored before hand, i'm
mediately on appearing in the presence of
his holiness, sank upon his knees, an action
which greatly impressed the Pope and his
Tetainers.
In 1929 the King of Spain sent an elephant
and five camels to King James /. of En-
gland. This latter monarch was extrava-
gantly fond of pet animals, and had quito a
menagerie at his palace, so that it may be
imagined that he was particularly well
pleased with this gift Much better pleased,
indeed, than the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer was, for the English Treasury was
at that time sadly depleted. To pay the
ESQ which the king ordered given to the
man who had brought the elephant took
away every penny in the Treasury, and
made it necessary to refuse to allow the
queen money for a journey which she wished
TO make to Scotland that year. And when
an estimate was made of the cost of
keeping the animal, it was found to be 9275
a year, an / it was no wonder that Mr..
Chancellors groanS were both loud and
deep. And to make the matter worse, an
additional charge was made for Liquors
for the olifawnte." His keepers affirm that
from the month of September until April
he must drink not water, but ''wyue," and
from April until September he must have
"a gallon of .wyne a daye.n
A curious proof that medieval Europe
had few opportunities for observing the
elephant is shown in the general opinion
that this animal had no joints in his legs,
and therefore could not lie down, but slept
standing.
In one of the very earliest volumes of
natural history printed in the English
tongue, in the latter part of the sixteenth
century, allusion is made to the "olifawnte
that bendeth not the knee ;" and in a work
published nearly century later, it is grave
" stated that the elephant usually sleeps
leaning against tree, and that the usual
method of capturing him was to watch
what tree he selected for the purpose, and
to saw it partially..asunder so that it might
break and cause the animal to fall, when he
would become an easy prey, as he could not
rise again.
An old play, published in 1888, describes
a woman as stubborn as an elephants leg
no bending in her." And that Shake
speare shared in the general delusion is
shown by the lines in F'Troilus and Ores
sida:"
An elephant hath joints, but not for courtesie,
Ills legs are for necessity, not feXure.
From the time when man and the ele-
plant "were first acquaint," the sagacity of
the great four-footed animal has brought
out all the training instinct of the biped.
Wonderful stories are told by ancient
writers of the feats of trained elephants.
Pliny says that they would haul iavelins.
fight with each other as gladiators and dance
the Pyrrhic dances. Further, that they
would walk forward and backward, and
even dance on a rope. This latter feat,
though attested by such writers as Pliny,
Suetonius, Dion and Allan, has never been
credited by modern showmen.
The military history of the elephant be-
gins with the invasion of India by Alex
ander the Great, who found them brought
against him by Porus. At the battle of
Hydaspes they unquestionably caused Porus'
defeat, for the Grecian infantry, getting
between them apd cutting their feet caused
them to turn upon their own lines and crush
many in their effort to retreat.
Elephants were first brought to Greece
for military use by Anticipates, and to Italy
by PyrrhuS. Hannibal made perhaps more
effective use of them than any other Gen
a.
In these instances they were always made
effective against cavalry, for horses were
afraid to stand against them, but thew were
of no value against disciplined infantry.
The last instance of the use of military
elephants in western Europe was at the
battle of Thapsus, where Julius Caesar over
threw the army of the republic and it's
African auxiliaries. They were used in wars
in India as late as 1779. The Emperor of
Delhi once mounted light guns on the backs
of elephants, but the animals moved SO
slowly, and the difficulty of getting the
arms in proper range was so great that this
form of artillery mounting was given up as
failure.
A number of elephants in modern me-
nageries have gained much fame by their
sagacity and teachableness. One which be-
came very well known in England during
the early part of this century was a female
elephant named Lutchme. This animal
not only went through long list of tricks
such as are usually performed by trained
elephants, but also learned to take part in
a melodrama, in which she assisted in the
escape of captive prince and his followers
from prison, by making an inclined plane
of herself and allowing them to slide from a
second-story window to the ground on her
back. At first the lights and music of the
theatre seemed to alarm her very much, but
in very short time she became accustomed
TO these, and took part in the scenes of the
play with as much apparent interest as the
human parfOY-nnerg